Fact check: Six days of Trump lies about the Hurricane Helene response
Daniel Dale, CNN
Mon, October 7, 2024
Former President Donald Trump has delivered a barrage of lies and distortions about the federal response to Hurricane Helene.
While various misinformation about the response has spread widely without Trump’s involvement, the Republican presidential nominee has been one of the country’s leading deceivers on the subject. Over a span of six days, in public comments and social media posts, Trump has used his powerful megaphone to endorse or invent false or unsubstantiated claims.
The chief targets of his hurricane-related dishonesty have been Vice President Kamala Harris, his opponent in the November presidential election, and President Joe Biden.
Monday: Trump falsely claims Biden hasn’t answered calls from Georgia’s governor
During a visit to Georgia on Monday, Trump said of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp: “He’s been calling the president, hasn’t been able to get him.”
It was immediately clear that Trump’s claim was false. Kemp, a Republican, told reporters earlier Monday that he had spoken with Biden the day prior — and that it was Kemp who had initially missed a call from Biden, not the other way around.
Kemp told reporters that he had successfully called Biden right back. Kemp added: “He just said, ‘Hey, what do you need?’ And I told him, you know, ‘We got what we need. We’ll work through the federal process.’ He offered that if there’s other things we need, just to call him directly, which — I appreciate that. But we’ve had FEMA embedded with us since a day or two before the storm hit in our state operations center in Atlanta; we’ve got a great relationship with them.”
Monday: Trump cites baseless ‘reports’ about anti-Republican bias in the North Carolina response
In a social media post on Monday, Trump said of North Carolina: “I’ll be there shortly, but don’t like the reports that I’m getting about the Federal Government, and the Democrat Governor of the State, going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.”
It’s unclear what “reports” Trump might have been getting, but there was no apparent basis for the underlying claim that the Biden administration and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper were maliciously abandoning certain communities out of partisan bias.
Trump provided no evidence when a reporter pressed him later in the day.
Thursday: Trump falsely claims the Biden-Harris response had received ‘universally’ negative reviews
Trump wrote in a social media post on Thursday that Biden and Harris “are universally being given POOR GRADES for the way that they are handling the Hurricane, especially in North Carolina.”
That wasn’t even close to accurate. Though the Biden administration’s response had certainly received criticism, it had also been praised by various state and local leaders — including the Republican governors of some of the affected states and the Democratic governor of North Carolina, plus local leaders including the Democratic mayor of the hard-hit North Carolina city of Asheville.
For example, Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said at a Tuesday press conference that federal assistance had “been superb,” noting that Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had both called and told him to let them know whatever the state needed. McMaster also said FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell had called.
Thursday: Trump falsely claims Harris spent ‘all her FEMA money’ on housing illegal migrants
At a campaign rally in Michigan on Thursday, Trump claimed that “Kamala spent all her FEMA money, billions of dollars, on housing for illegal migrants, many of whom should not be in our country.” He added in an election-related conspiracy theory, saying, “They stole the FEMA money, just like they stole it from a bank, so they could give it to their illegal immigrants that they want to have vote for them this season.”
This is false.
First, there is zero basis for Trump’s suggestion that the Biden administration is running some sort of scheme to get undocumented immigrants to vote illegally in the 2024 election. Voting by noncitizens is a felony.
Second, there is zero basis for claiming that FEMA disaster assistance money was stolen — by anyone, let alone Harris personally — for the housing of migrants.
Congress appropriated $650 million in the 2024 fiscal year to fund a program that helps state and local governments house migrants — and instructed US Customs and Border Protection to transfer that $650 million to FEMA to administer the program. But this $650 million pot is entirely distinct from FEMA’s pot of disaster relief funds; as the Department of Homeland Security, the White House and independent observers noted this week, they’re just two separate things funded separately by Congress.
Congress appropriated more than $35 billion in disaster relief funds for fiscal 2024, according to official FEMA statistics.
Friday: Trump falsely claims $1 billion was ‘stolen’ from FEMA for migrants and has gone ‘missing’
Though Trump’s Thursday claim about FEMA money and migrants had already been debunked by Friday, Trump repeated the claim to reporters at least twice on Friday — and then said it again at a Friday night town hall event in North Carolina.
Saturday: Trump falsely claims the federal government is only giving $750 to people who lost their homes
At a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, Trump strongly suggested that Americans who lost their homes in the hurricane were only being offered $750 in federal aid.
“They’re offering them $750, to people whose homes have been washed away. And yet we send tens of billions of dollars to foreign countries that most people have never heard of. They’re offering them $750. They’ve been destroyed, these people have been destroyed,” Trump said. He added, “Think of it: We give foreign countries hundreds of billions of dollars and we’re handing North Carolina $750.”
Trump’s claim is wrong. As FEMA explained earlier in the week on social media and on a web page it created to combat misinformation about the response, $750 is merely the immediate, upfront aid survivors can get to cover basic, pressing needs like food, water, baby formula and emergency supplies. Survivors are also eligible to apply for additional forms of assistance, such as to pay for temporary housing and home repairs, that can be worth thousands of dollars; the current maximum amount for home repair assistance, for example, is $42,500.
During Harris’ visit to Georgia on Wednesday, she said, “And the federal relief and assistance that we have been providing has included FEMA providing $750 for folks who need immediate needs being met, such as food, baby formula, and the like. And you can apply now.” But she added just moments later, “FEMA is also providing tens of thousands more dollars for folks to help them be able to deal with home repair, to be able to cover a deductible when and if they have insurance, and also hotel costs.”
It’s also worth noting that this hurricane-related assistance to individual residents is separate from the hurricane-related assistance the federal government will provide to state governments. For example, the federal transportation department announced Saturday that it was immediately providing $100 million to North Carolina’s transportation department “to help pay for the costs of immediate emergency work resulting from Hurricane Helene flood damage.” Buttigieg added that this emergency funding “will be followed by additional federal resources.”
Saturday: Trump falsely claims there are ‘no helicopters, no rescue’ in North Carolina
Trump, criticizing Harris for participating in a political fundraising event in California the last weekend of September, said at the Saturday rally in Pennsylvania: “Kamala wined and dined in San Francisco, and all of the people in North Carolina — no helicopters, no rescue — it’s just — what’s happened there is very bad.”
This claim about North Carolina is false. There have been numerous government and private helicopters and other aircraft involved in rescue and aid efforts in North Carolina, though some residents died before they could be rescued and a significant number of residents have remained missing or stranded for days.
The North Carolina National Guard announced Thursday that its own air assets had “completed 146 flight missions, resulting in the rescue of 538 people and 150 pets.” The Washington Post reported Friday: “The drone of helicopters has become routine across western North Carolina in the wake of Helene. National Guard and civilian aircraft now crisscross the skies of a region where roads and bridges have been destroyed and people are trapped. The helicopters are delivering supplies, picking up people who need rescuing, dropping off firefighters and search-and-rescue crews and radioing for assistance for others who can be more easily accessed from the ground.“
CNN reported Saturday that air traffic over western North Carolina had increased 300% over the past seven days due to hurricane relief efforts, according to Becca Gallas, director of North Carolina’s Division of Aviation. The state said in an official update Saturday: “A total of 53 search and rescue teams from North Carolina and beyond, consisting of more than 1,600 personnel have conducted search and rescue operations during this event. Search and rescue teams have interacted with over 5,400 people, including assists, evacuations and rescues.”
Migrants, FEMA and $750: How Trump and his allies are spreading false claims about Hurricane Helene relief
Kelly Rissman
THE INDEPENDENT UK
Mon, October 7, 2024
Migrants, FEMA and $750: How Trump and his allies are spreading false claims about Hurricane Helene relief
Donald Trump and his allies have spent the week in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene spreading false claims about the federal response to the devastation — misinformation that officials warn could be dangerous to survivors in need of aid.
As the death toll from Helene’s aftermath surpasses 200 and hundreds of thousands are still without power, the former president and those close to him have spent the week since the storm ripped through the southeastern part of the country spreading falsehoods about the response.
Sunday’s rally in Juneau, Wisconsin was no different. Trump baselessly claimed that as the flood waters were rising, President Joe Biden’s administration “was gone” and that survivors haven’t seen “anybody from the federal government yet.”
Not only have Biden and Kamala Harris have both paid visits to the areas wrecked by the Category 4 storm, there are also nearly 7,000 federal personnel on the ground in the affected region, according to a White House memo.
The Trump campaign, for its part, also partnered with a Christian humanitarian aid organization to supply fuel, food, water, and other resources to Georgia, a swing state.
Perhaps the most pervasive false statement is that the federal government is only providing $750 to disaster survivors.
Trump told a Butler, Pennsylvania crowd on Saturday that the administration is “offering them $750, to people whose homes have been washed away.”
“And yet we send tens of billions of dollars to foreign countries that most people have never heard of,” he said.
Meanwhile, his running mate JD Vance called it “insulting for people who have lost their homes and nearly everything to have somebody swoop in and talk about $750 like that’s a big sum of money.”
This amount has been misconstrued. The White House clarified that survivors will get an initial $750 after applying for Serious Needs Assistance, just one of many federal relief programs. This amount is meant to help cover essential items like food, water, baby formula, and medication. Survivors may qualify for more FEMA financial assistance. So far, the government has already provided more than $137 million in federal assistance to survivors.
Another frequently amplified falsehood revolves around a hot-button election issue: immigrants.
“They stole the FEMA money just like they stole it from a bank,” Trump said last week.
He also baselessly alleged that Harris spent “all of her FEMA” money on “housing for illegal migrants, many of whom should not be in our country.”
This false claim has been spread by ardent Trump supporter and tech billionaire Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man and the owner of influential social media platform X, which he uses to promote the former president.
“You have migrants being housed in luxury hotels in New York City,” Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump told CNN on Sunday.
There is basis for claims that federal assistance was diverted to support migrants.
Incredibly, Trump did exactly what he now accuses Biden of doing — he redirected $155 million from the disaster fund in 2019 to pay for additional detention facilities and “migrant transportation” resources, according to a Department of Homeland notice first reported by the The Washington Post.
Kamala Harris visits areas impacted by Hurricane Helene in Augusta, Georgia, on October 2. (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
The former president has also accused the Biden-Harris administration of “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.”
Perhaps there’s no one better suited to dispute this claim than a member of Trump’s own party.
Republican Senator Thom Tillis, whose state of North Carolina was devastated by Helene, praised the federal response during a Friday media briefing.
“For anybody who thinks that any level of government, anybody here could have been prepared precisely for what we’re dealing with here, clearly, are clueless,” he said. “They’re doing a great job.”
Tillis added that he was “impressed with how much attention was paid to a region that wasn’t likely to have experienced the impact that they did.”
He also wrote an email to his constituents condemning the politicization of the recovery efforts. Although he didn’t call out Trump by name, he wrote: “The last thing that the victims of Helene need right now is political posturing, finger-pointing, or conspiracy theories that only hurt the response effort.”
Trump’s own allies also aren’t committing to returning to Congress to approve more disaster aid while criticizing the Biden administration for allegedly not delivering any. House Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday did not commit to calling Congress back into session before Election Day after Biden warned lawmakers about potential funding shortfalls.
Officials and others are warning that misinformation could have severe impacts on those who need assistance — especially those in the areas that could be ravaged by yet another hurricane this week.
“You know, it’s really a shame that we’re putting politics ahead of helping people, and that’s what we’re here to do,” FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell said on ABC’s This Week on Sunday.
“It’s also demoralizing to all of the first responders that have been out there in their communities helping people,” he added.
National Guard members organize donations to be distributed to survivors following the passing of Hurricane Helene in Hendersonville, North Carolina, on October 6. (REUTERS)
White House officials have also warned about the dangers of these false claims.
“A number of scam artists, bad-faith actors, and others who want to sow chaos because they think it helps their political interests are promoting disinformation about the recovery effort, including ways to access critical and live-saving resources,” according to a statement from communications director Ben LaBolt and director of digital strategy Christian Tom.
“This is wrong, dangerous, and it must stop immediately,” they wrote.
The editorial board for the second-largest newspaper in North Carolina have also taken issue with the conspiracy theories floated by Trump and his loyalists.
“This is not a situation to capitalize on for political gain. But former President Donald Trump has politicized the situation at every turn, spreading falsehoods and conspiracies that fracture the community instead of bringing it together,” the board wrote.
“There’s no evidence to support any of those ridiculous claims,” the board continued. “And by every indication, state and federal agencies have been working to help people in need.”
Mon, October 7, 2024
Migrants, FEMA and $750: How Trump and his allies are spreading false claims about Hurricane Helene relief
Donald Trump and his allies have spent the week in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene spreading false claims about the federal response to the devastation — misinformation that officials warn could be dangerous to survivors in need of aid.
As the death toll from Helene’s aftermath surpasses 200 and hundreds of thousands are still without power, the former president and those close to him have spent the week since the storm ripped through the southeastern part of the country spreading falsehoods about the response.
Sunday’s rally in Juneau, Wisconsin was no different. Trump baselessly claimed that as the flood waters were rising, President Joe Biden’s administration “was gone” and that survivors haven’t seen “anybody from the federal government yet.”
Not only have Biden and Kamala Harris have both paid visits to the areas wrecked by the Category 4 storm, there are also nearly 7,000 federal personnel on the ground in the affected region, according to a White House memo.
The Trump campaign, for its part, also partnered with a Christian humanitarian aid organization to supply fuel, food, water, and other resources to Georgia, a swing state.
Perhaps the most pervasive false statement is that the federal government is only providing $750 to disaster survivors.
Trump told a Butler, Pennsylvania crowd on Saturday that the administration is “offering them $750, to people whose homes have been washed away.”
“And yet we send tens of billions of dollars to foreign countries that most people have never heard of,” he said.
Meanwhile, his running mate JD Vance called it “insulting for people who have lost their homes and nearly everything to have somebody swoop in and talk about $750 like that’s a big sum of money.”
This amount has been misconstrued. The White House clarified that survivors will get an initial $750 after applying for Serious Needs Assistance, just one of many federal relief programs. This amount is meant to help cover essential items like food, water, baby formula, and medication. Survivors may qualify for more FEMA financial assistance. So far, the government has already provided more than $137 million in federal assistance to survivors.
Another frequently amplified falsehood revolves around a hot-button election issue: immigrants.
“They stole the FEMA money just like they stole it from a bank,” Trump said last week.
He also baselessly alleged that Harris spent “all of her FEMA” money on “housing for illegal migrants, many of whom should not be in our country.”
This false claim has been spread by ardent Trump supporter and tech billionaire Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man and the owner of influential social media platform X, which he uses to promote the former president.
“You have migrants being housed in luxury hotels in New York City,” Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump told CNN on Sunday.
There is basis for claims that federal assistance was diverted to support migrants.
Incredibly, Trump did exactly what he now accuses Biden of doing — he redirected $155 million from the disaster fund in 2019 to pay for additional detention facilities and “migrant transportation” resources, according to a Department of Homeland notice first reported by the The Washington Post.
Kamala Harris visits areas impacted by Hurricane Helene in Augusta, Georgia, on October 2. (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
The former president has also accused the Biden-Harris administration of “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.”
Perhaps there’s no one better suited to dispute this claim than a member of Trump’s own party.
Republican Senator Thom Tillis, whose state of North Carolina was devastated by Helene, praised the federal response during a Friday media briefing.
“For anybody who thinks that any level of government, anybody here could have been prepared precisely for what we’re dealing with here, clearly, are clueless,” he said. “They’re doing a great job.”
Tillis added that he was “impressed with how much attention was paid to a region that wasn’t likely to have experienced the impact that they did.”
He also wrote an email to his constituents condemning the politicization of the recovery efforts. Although he didn’t call out Trump by name, he wrote: “The last thing that the victims of Helene need right now is political posturing, finger-pointing, or conspiracy theories that only hurt the response effort.”
Trump’s own allies also aren’t committing to returning to Congress to approve more disaster aid while criticizing the Biden administration for allegedly not delivering any. House Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday did not commit to calling Congress back into session before Election Day after Biden warned lawmakers about potential funding shortfalls.
Officials and others are warning that misinformation could have severe impacts on those who need assistance — especially those in the areas that could be ravaged by yet another hurricane this week.
“You know, it’s really a shame that we’re putting politics ahead of helping people, and that’s what we’re here to do,” FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell said on ABC’s This Week on Sunday.
“It’s also demoralizing to all of the first responders that have been out there in their communities helping people,” he added.
National Guard members organize donations to be distributed to survivors following the passing of Hurricane Helene in Hendersonville, North Carolina, on October 6. (REUTERS)
White House officials have also warned about the dangers of these false claims.
“A number of scam artists, bad-faith actors, and others who want to sow chaos because they think it helps their political interests are promoting disinformation about the recovery effort, including ways to access critical and live-saving resources,” according to a statement from communications director Ben LaBolt and director of digital strategy Christian Tom.
“This is wrong, dangerous, and it must stop immediately,” they wrote.
The editorial board for the second-largest newspaper in North Carolina have also taken issue with the conspiracy theories floated by Trump and his loyalists.
“This is not a situation to capitalize on for political gain. But former President Donald Trump has politicized the situation at every turn, spreading falsehoods and conspiracies that fracture the community instead of bringing it together,” the board wrote.
“There’s no evidence to support any of those ridiculous claims,” the board continued. “And by every indication, state and federal agencies have been working to help people in need.”
False claims about the federal response to Helene are an ominous sign for the coming election
Analysis by Brian Stelter, CNN
Sat, October 5, 2024
False claims about the federal response to the historic devastation left by Hurricane Helene are spreading out of control on social media, hampering recovery efforts in hard-hit areas, according to local officials.
The flood of misinformation targeting the Biden administration’s response to the destructive storm is an ominous sign for the coming election, with the presidential contest between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris sure to trigger further attacks on the truth.
“If you think the lies and distortions and know-nothing takes about FEMA are bad, just wait until this time next month,” Tim Alberta, The Atlantic staff writer and author, wrote on X, one of the primary platforms where falsehoods have spread faster than facts.
Elon Musk, the X owner who has endorsed Trump, has repeatedly posted rumors and innuendo denigrating the federal government’s response to Helene. Most of the misinformation is brazenly political, portraying President Joe Biden and Harris as incompetent in an attempt to help Trump win reelection.
Politicians and emergency responders in the disaster zone stretching from Georgia to North Carolina, including many Republican elected officials, have refuted the lies and urged people to stop sharing unsupported rumors on social media.
Kerry Giles, the public information officer for Rutherford County, NC, told CNN on Saturday that debunking the rumors “did consume resources that could have been more effectively utilized in the recovery efforts.”
Giles and her colleagues issued a statement on Friday shutting down several lies swirling online about the devastated towns of Lake Lure and Chimney Rock Village. No, they said, the government is not taking over Chimney Rock; no, there is no discussion about seizing property; no, there are not dead “bodies everywhere” as a result of the storm.
“Snopes.com and regional media outlets have covered much of the debunking, which has helped to reduce some of the misinformation circulating,” Giles told CNN.
Some of the most-shared lies on social media have involved FEMA’s response. Trump has falsely claimed that relief funds are being withheld from predominantly Republican areas after the agency directed relief money to help migrants.
“A billion dollars was stolen from FEMA to use it for illegal migrants,” Trump falsely claimed Friday in Georgia.
But Trump was actually accusing the Biden administration of an act very similar to something he did as president.
“Republican elected officials keep rebutting the BS, and MAGA does not care,” conservative columnist David French said in a social media post Saturday. “They follow liars, and when the liars lie, they believe them and hate anyone who tells the truth.”
Veteran users of X say the sheer amount of bogus and baseless information on the platform is getting worse – in part because Musk reversed efforts to reduce viral misinformation and reinstated accounts of conspiracy theorists.
Officials at FEMA have published a rumor control page to push back on bogus claims, including the assertion that it “is confiscating donations for survivors.” Mike Rothschild, a journalist who has written two books about conspiracy theory culture, called FEMA’s effort “noble but doomed.” He wrote on X that “nobody who wants to believe the lies will trust the source, and the denials will just be rolled into the conspiracy theories.”
Or, as the hosts of the progressive podcast Appodlachia commented, more bluntly, “the internet has broken peoples’ brains.”
Misleading AI-generated images purporting to be from the disaster zone have been proliferating on Facebook, leading one local news station to publish a “how to spot AI-generated Helene storm photos” explainer.
As North Carolina columnist Billy Ball wrote on Friday, “We have a lot of crises in the U.S., but few are as significant as the information crisis. People are lying to us to make us hate each other, to get our money, to boost some cause or another.”
And all signs point to an even uglier climate once votes start to be counted next month
Analysis by Brian Stelter, CNN
Sat, October 5, 2024
False claims about the federal response to the historic devastation left by Hurricane Helene are spreading out of control on social media, hampering recovery efforts in hard-hit areas, according to local officials.
The flood of misinformation targeting the Biden administration’s response to the destructive storm is an ominous sign for the coming election, with the presidential contest between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris sure to trigger further attacks on the truth.
“If you think the lies and distortions and know-nothing takes about FEMA are bad, just wait until this time next month,” Tim Alberta, The Atlantic staff writer and author, wrote on X, one of the primary platforms where falsehoods have spread faster than facts.
Elon Musk, the X owner who has endorsed Trump, has repeatedly posted rumors and innuendo denigrating the federal government’s response to Helene. Most of the misinformation is brazenly political, portraying President Joe Biden and Harris as incompetent in an attempt to help Trump win reelection.
Politicians and emergency responders in the disaster zone stretching from Georgia to North Carolina, including many Republican elected officials, have refuted the lies and urged people to stop sharing unsupported rumors on social media.
Kerry Giles, the public information officer for Rutherford County, NC, told CNN on Saturday that debunking the rumors “did consume resources that could have been more effectively utilized in the recovery efforts.”
Giles and her colleagues issued a statement on Friday shutting down several lies swirling online about the devastated towns of Lake Lure and Chimney Rock Village. No, they said, the government is not taking over Chimney Rock; no, there is no discussion about seizing property; no, there are not dead “bodies everywhere” as a result of the storm.
“Snopes.com and regional media outlets have covered much of the debunking, which has helped to reduce some of the misinformation circulating,” Giles told CNN.
Some of the most-shared lies on social media have involved FEMA’s response. Trump has falsely claimed that relief funds are being withheld from predominantly Republican areas after the agency directed relief money to help migrants.
“A billion dollars was stolen from FEMA to use it for illegal migrants,” Trump falsely claimed Friday in Georgia.
But Trump was actually accusing the Biden administration of an act very similar to something he did as president.
“Republican elected officials keep rebutting the BS, and MAGA does not care,” conservative columnist David French said in a social media post Saturday. “They follow liars, and when the liars lie, they believe them and hate anyone who tells the truth.”
Veteran users of X say the sheer amount of bogus and baseless information on the platform is getting worse – in part because Musk reversed efforts to reduce viral misinformation and reinstated accounts of conspiracy theorists.
Officials at FEMA have published a rumor control page to push back on bogus claims, including the assertion that it “is confiscating donations for survivors.” Mike Rothschild, a journalist who has written two books about conspiracy theory culture, called FEMA’s effort “noble but doomed.” He wrote on X that “nobody who wants to believe the lies will trust the source, and the denials will just be rolled into the conspiracy theories.”
Or, as the hosts of the progressive podcast Appodlachia commented, more bluntly, “the internet has broken peoples’ brains.”
Misleading AI-generated images purporting to be from the disaster zone have been proliferating on Facebook, leading one local news station to publish a “how to spot AI-generated Helene storm photos” explainer.
As North Carolina columnist Billy Ball wrote on Friday, “We have a lot of crises in the U.S., but few are as significant as the information crisis. People are lying to us to make us hate each other, to get our money, to boost some cause or another.”
And all signs point to an even uglier climate once votes start to be counted next month
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